Ahhhhhhhh

 It's been a bit busy and there's an awful lot of plate-spinning happening.

When we came to head up to Bristol the trip felt a little bit daunting - and we were also taking more luggage than usual (including a negative scanner...because, you know...).

As it was, it was as smooth a trip - we jumped on a bus at the end of the road, our train was already waiting for us at the station, the tube across London was painless and we only had 10 minutes or so to wait at Paddington.  Once we walk through the door of the flat and ascertain that there had been no obvious disasters in our absence, we can start to relax.

The utter delight of settling into the Barley Mow was unparallelled.  We observed that we don't really like pubs which are devoid of customers but the BM is a bit of an outlier in that, even if the pub interior is  largely empty, you know that there will be loads of people sitting outside so people are always coming and going.  We sit in peace inside, whilst knowing we're not actually alone in the place.

There wasn't an enormous range of cask we wanted to drink but it was Monday (we don't normally travel up on a Monday - it was a bit disorienting) we had lovely beer, and we relaxed.

Lots of work to do this week, but the knowledge of local beer availability makes it all a bit better.  Funding bid, anyone? 

Never Say Never

 It was the BBB's birthday yesterday.  Sadly, I had to dash into work for a meeting but I was back around lunchtime.  We'd toyed with the idea of a walk but rain threatened so we chickened out and wandered down to The Crown to watch some cricket, play a birthday-present game and make the most of the beer.

There was a Burning Sky APA and that was supplemented by Long Man Mosaic.

The APA was lovely but it seemed a crime not to even try the Mosaic...we're not Long Man fans but we needed to take one for the team.

Actually it was really, really nice.  So much so, we shared a final of it.

 I hope the birthday boy enjoyed the trip as much as I did. 

Regulars

 Saturday saw us both in work again as we were co-producing a new session for young people at TechResort (that is to say, we've a vague idea how it should work but we wanted to test it on some willing victims before we go further).

It was quite a lot of peopling for us both followed by developing 5 rolls of film in a non-dedicated darkroom...in other words, tanking up in the light-proof bathroom, and developing in the kitchen.

After the deluges of Friday night, the temperature crept up in the afternoon so by the time we left, we were hot and tired.  Beerarama seemed the best place to go.  Obviously, the prospect of Route 21 Cask beer was persuasive: we really enjoyed it but thought it might be more of a keg beer, YMMV.

On keg was a first (probably only) for Eastbourne:  an IPA from Brausyndikat Microbrewery in Zurich.  With the brewer also onsite.  Very nice it was too - definitely continental in style.

Beerarama is unlike any venue we go to in Bristol - it has a really good wine list and a decent keg offering at all times.  There's usually bag-in-box cider/perry too.

Their expansion into cask is very welcome but even if there's nothing on tap you fancy at that moment, it has a huge range of cans in fridges, together with an enviable no/low selection.

Speaking of Bristol, we're heading there soon (in a week or so) and I'm back to yearning for my home city and its variety of places.  As the BBB put it yesterday, it's also got more B&W photo-opportunities than Eastbourne.

We'll miss the garden but a couple of weeks watching balloons and peregrines whilst working will be the perfect reset from the amount travelling to venues and stuff I've been doing recently 

Reprise

 Friday we were working at base again so it seemed rude not to pop to Beerarama for some cask afterwards.

 This weekend's offering was by Almasty and was a lovely, hazy 4-and-a-bit percenter.

It had only just gone on and it was glorious. So much so that, despite some interesting looking kegs, we stuck with 2 more pints for our seconds.  Yum.

 Yesterday we had to go to the Wish Tower to meet the builder about some impending work so afterwards, we could have gone to the Bohemian, which is our usual after-tower venue but we wanted more of that lovely Almasty beer again before it went.  We almost never go to the same place two days in a row but this exception was definitely worth it.

Still fantastic but this time we moved to other beers after.  I asked Jamie how it was going and he was pleased to report they were making money out of it which is just lovely to hear.

 Today, I'm hoping for a bit of gentle garden-fettling followed by enjoying said garden with some Arbor beer.  I've another "out and about" week coming and next weekend also likely to be quite busy...some quiet time definitely called for. 

 

Eastbourne Developments

 D'you know, the beer thing might actually be looking in up in Eastbourne.

Granted, the starting place is pretty low but there are actual glimmers...

First, The Crown, our stalwart local that has a proper set of "regulars".  I'm starting to feel like one of them - cheerily greeted and bade farewell by other regulars.  A couple of the bar staff who have been around the pub as kids with their families (regulars, of course) and who started doing glass collecting at the weekends are now fully-fledged bar staff and we've seen them grow, and grow until now they're about 90-feet tall.  Landlord, Andy, tells us cask sales have increased some and now he's turning around more interesting cask beers pretty quickly - recently we've blinked and missed a new one!  When we tootled in on Monday afternoon there were two really nice ones on (Mallinsons Nectaron, Kent Prohibition) and that had followed NBB and Three Acres beers a few days before.  This cheers us enormously!

Then, if that weren't good enough, John and Jamie of Beerarama have starting doing one 9 gallon cask each weekend with a chiller jacket and a cask-tipper at the back of the bar.  Falling into the place after a stressful (but brilliant) work session with some volunteers, I asked for two-pints and John gave me a double-take.  "You don't drink pints!" he chuckled.  Frankly, it was just as well that we did because the bloody things didn't touch the sides...and lovely beer, too.

This week, I've seen on social media that a local micro-brewery (Route 21) and a local but well-known cider  producer are planning to open a new taproom in town (not far from the Eagle, it happens) and that's definitely cause for celebration. Even if we don't end up going in there all the time (like Ninkasi because it's not always convenient, or whatever) then it's nice to know that we can ring the changes.  Rest assured, we certainly will be.

Hopefully this will buoy up other similar places and maybe even convince others it worth opening.